Blu02

I prefer Skyrim or any Elder Scrolls game. It's so much more interesting and epic, and the engine handle that type of gameplay a lot better. I played Fallout 3 for a while and really tried to like it, since I love apocalyptic styles and the odd humor of Fallout. But the world just feels so empty and boring compared to ES-games, and the character feels clumsy. I lost interest after two attempts and haven't even bothered with New Vegas yet, eventhough I bought it around release.

It usually says who's ashes it is when you look at it, unless it's just some random unnamed character. But I think it's a bit glitchy, especially if the cell is reloaded.

Ulfric had already stated his opinion about making Skyrim independent before going to Solitude. Even if no one knew he would challenge Torygg on his visit, all I hear is that it still was a proper challenge, which Torygg obviously couldn't deny as a High King, and couldn't win because of Ulfric's superior experience. The point of it all was, again, that Torygg was too weak as High King. He let the Empire and Thalmor meddle too much with Skyrim affairs and Ulfric didnt exactly hide his opinions about other Jarl's being corrupted by this. The killing of Torygg was necessary in order to call for a vote amongst the Jarls about a new High King (Not leaving it open for anyone to grab). This was however not possible before driving out the Empire and Thalmor from their courts and replacing any corrupted Jarls, hence the civil war. It had already been many years since the White-Gold Concordat was established, and how much longer should they wait? The Thalmor grow stronger over time as well, and they constantly operate around Tamriel while the Empire is acting paralyzed. Their leadership in Cyrodiil is obviously more or less corrupted by Thalmor as well, so hopefully the successful rebellion in Skyrim inspires the Imperials to rise up again to drive out the Thalmor. Seeing how occupied Skyrim was with Imperial soldiers, they have definitely recovered a lot already, but lack proper leadership to act. It's kinda sad though that so many imperial lives have to be wasted in the process. Why would you accept to hide your beliefs in your own homeland? Talos is Nord religion and they are way too proud to deny it. Sure there are still secret shrines all over Skyrim, but fighting for it is more about principles, freedom and pride. The main difference is that Ulfric want Skyrim for the Nords, while the Thalmor want the world for the elves. Ulfric isnt conquering other provinces for his own interest, but only want to give Skyrim back to its people, along with their traditions and freedom. I dont believe that Ulfric is as "racist" as many thinks. If he didnt care about the dunmer, for example, he wouldn't have let them live inside his city walls in the first place. They are safe, have roof over their heads and are allowed to do business in the city. I think Ulfric has a lot of more important concerns to deal with than ungrateful elves (Which I'm surprised his nerves can handle at this point :P ). A reason to why he still bother to help Nords in particular is probably related to the cause of Stormcloaks. A leader has to care and look good for his people. Speak to the altmer Niranye in the market and hear her perspective; "It was difficult at first. The Nords of this city are, at best, suspicious of outsiders. But in time I made the right friends and proved myself useful enough that they don't give me trouble anymore. The Dunmer are too proud and naive to see the way things truly are, and so they continue to dwell in that slum." Depends on how you read it. Ulfric was captured during the war, interrogated and tortured. He later got released, probably after accepting some agreements. Since the Thalmor wanted civil war in Skyrim, I'm sure the whole idea was to let Ulfric start a rebellion against the Empire and corrupted Jarls within the province. Said and done, Ulfric took actions and formed the Stormcloaks to fight the Empire. What wasn't a part of Thalmors plans however was that one side would win (Thanks to a certain dragonborn) before Thalmor got the chance to do whatever they planned on doing while Skyrim was in chaos. So now Ulfric has freed himself from Thalmors intentions, and are acting on his own will. The dossier on Ulfric was written before the Stormcloak victory, when he was indeed just a "pawn in the Aldmeri Dominion's plans". But note that Ulfric never let any Thalmor inside Windhelm and cant even talk to them without making a scene. He's carrying a lot of hatred against the Thalmor, and I'm sure this was his plan ever since he got released from their custody. True, but Skyrim is at least fairly surrounded by mountains, and harsh climate in the north which is much more suited for Nords. They have the high ground, which should definitely be a huge advantage if they get enough time to mobilize. The cities in Skyrims corners are also heavily fortified and will not fall easily. But in the long run I think it's all up to how the Empire decides to continue.

Allegiance: Stormcloak Skyrim Race: Nord IRL Gender: Male IRL Age: 27 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Favorite subject in school/uni major: Computer Science IRL Political affiliation: --- Play/Combat style: Warrior Blades or Paarthurnax: Blades Guilds joined: Companions, Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold, Dawnguard Opinion on the Daedra: Some should be allowed for worship, and some should stay banned. Who did you side with in Fallout: New Vegas? ---

Oblivion is definitely worth playing even after Skyrim. It still does a lot of things way better. I just recommend you to add a bunch of graphic-mods and possibly FCOM if you're up to it. If not then OOO will do good on its own as well.

Ulfric's only goal is to make Skyrim strong and independent, and giving back its people the right to worship Talos again. When challenging and defeating the previous High King, he merely proved his point, that Skyrim needs a proper leader. As it turns out, I'd say Ulfric is the only one around who is suited for the role. Sure he wants it, but he still respect traditions and is willing to challenge any other candidates. He's got the blood, the background, the experience, the respect, the heart and will for it. But yes, his interests lies only within the borders of Skyrim. He wont try to save the world, but will do anything to protect the province. Accepting a truce with the Thalmor will never happen, since this is exactly what they have been fighting against from the beginning. The Thalmor still has a major interest in Skyrim though, and Ulfric will not let them in again, so the fighting will definitely continue. Ulfric is however not ready to operate outside of Skyrim for many years, but will have to keep defending his own borders until they have more proper and organized means to success. I honestly dont think they can beat the Thalmor themselves, but can at least protect their own lands for a while. In order to end the Thalmor there needs to be some serious alliance, or some sort of inside/assassination job aimed directly at the leaders in Summerset Isle. The Imperials are currently corrupted puppets and should remember who the enemy really is. I cant stand the thought of joining them in the war :P Fight for the empire and you fight for Thalmor. Well, yes. It seems you've missed a lot of the story in Skyrim :P But I dont agree about magicians. They're powerful yes, but there are always weapons and tactics to fight it. Especially Nords should be quite experienced in this matter.

Yep, it's the same for me. Eventhough I'm around level 50 with my current character, I still mostly find special items from level 10 that match my preferred skills (1h & heavyarmor), while often finding some pretty mighty lightarmors and bows. Oh well, I dont want to become too powerful anyway, so I'm not really complaining.

The Thalmor have been fighting a long time and should not be as powerful as they once were, especially considering how widely spread their forces are across Tamriel. They were close to defeat as well when peace-treaties were signed in Cyrodiil and Hammerfell, and that is how they still have so much control around Tamriel, through politics. Now that they have lost their foothold in Skyrim, along with the Empire, I cant imagine it will be an easy fight for them to regain control. Skyrim was weak because its people were divided and afraid during the civil war and the Jarls were tied because of the "White-Gold Concordat". But now that the Stormcloaks have reunited the holds and most of the people, they are probably the most powerful province in all of Tamriel, given they get enough time to regroup their forces towards the borders around Skyrim. As mentioned above, they also have a dragonborn around, with at least one allied dragon by his side. However, the Madmen of the Reach is still a growing threat within Skyrim, and I really hope Ulfric take them more seriously than the Imperials did. Eventhough Ulfric fought them before, they now at least should share a common interest; keeping the Thalmor and Imperials out of Skyrim. If they could somehow join forces, I dont think the Thalmor could stand a chance. But I'm afraid they hate eachother way too much, and Ulfric is too arrogant to realize the huge difference it would make (Especially considering how hard it was to have him pause the civil war in order to prevent the whole frikkin world from ending by Alduin). So yeah, the Stormcloaks definitely fight more with their fists than their brains, and that will probably be their biggest weakness through the whole war, unless someone else gets the role as High King (Which is doubtful since Ulfric is currently swinging the biggest pair of balls in Skyrim, and have honestly deserved the role imo). But the true goal of Thalmors fighting is yet to be revealed (Unless I have completely missed something). There are hints everywhere about they have some huge stuff going on, and I dont think it's just about conquering all of Tamriel. They are smart and manipulative, and definitely got some cards left up their sleeves to play with.

For me it's that 1 hour wait that makes me forget about endorsing some mods as well, but I think I've covered most of what I use. Personally though I dont care much about "endorsements" for my own mods, since it's just a button and a number. I rather see some more comments about how people actually experience it, which can be given at any time or several times. Way more interesting to see while also getting feedback. That's what makes me happy and want to spend more time on updates anyway, otherwise I easily lose interest. One interested person in the comments is more worth than 100 endorsements and thousands of downloads in my eyes.

I remember many people had that issue around release. Not sure if it's a bug or some Steam setting, but you can avoid it by disabling your internet connection when starting the install. That will force it to use your DVD content instead. Would be kinda retarded to sell DVD's with only Steam on them :P

Oh, that kind of mods. It just hit me this mod is quite popular. I havent played as Vampire Lord myself, but it sounds kinda retarded to not be able to interact with anything while transformed. Vampire Lords can Loot and Activate

I dont think there are any must-have mods for Dawnguard yet. Possibly face-textures for vampires if you're planning on becoming one (Apparently Vampires have their own race textures now). And possibly bug-fixing mods, but I dont have any problems with DG myself, so I dont keep track on those. Other than that there are mostly just new conjure-spells for the new creatures and new textures for crossbows. Overall I think DG is of really good quality as it is, compared to the Skyrim release. They havent compressed any textures to mud this time ;)

For me it depends on how I want my own character. I installed UNP Slim when I started playing a necromancer chick, who I just wanted to look out of shape and slightly underfed to fit her background and lifestyle. After that I changed to regular UNP but with muscular textures, when I started a more physically active hunter chick. Now I'm using more regular textures for UNP (Coverwomen without makeup) when playing a male character. The rest of the females around Skyrim just has to go with it, since I dont know any way to give my own character a unique body. Havent tried CBBE yet though as I already have so much great UNP stuff installed, but I remember how vanilla females are a bit too big and busty for my taste, so I'm at least not going back to that. When it comes to male bodies I use "Better Males" since a while back, because I hate how lowpoly the arms are when swinging swords and such in first person view :P Also got rid of the gorilla hairy vanilla textures. But on topic I dont feel that urge to install every popular mod at all. Whenever I start over with a clean install, I always go through the latest STEP-guide and download all the mods I feel matters to me (Probably around 90% of the list). That's a great base for graphics and realistic gameplay. Then I add body mods that fit the character I have been planning on. Done!

You'll get it a lot cheaper on DVD (Half price at some places), since it's still full crazy price on Steam. As already mentioned, it's a Steam game, so it will install via Steam anyway no matter how you buy it, but with a DVD you have the oppertunity to install it both faster and offline from a local source.

I really LOVE the Stalker games, but in the hands of Bethesda I honestly think they will kill all that made it what it was. Bethesda make way too mainstream stuff, and Stalker was quite a hardcore unforgiving PC game for its time, which is what made it so awsome, alongside its creepy realistic graphics and mood. Add an even more realistic overhaul mod to it and you have the most awesome post-apocalyptic FPS-RPG's out there. Fallout is nothing in comparison. But if I recall correctly, some of the original developers have started a new company to begin creating a new title heavily based on the original Stalker-games. I cant recall it's name right now though, but it sounded awesome. I'm sure more info will pop up soon.

Figured it had to be related to this crazy Dawnguard release :P Anyways, no worries. Last week I finally got around to set up my Paypal account again, just to buy a lifetime Premium account here. It's good to hear the money goes to good use here on Nexus, and you guys really deserve it for your efforts in running this place :) This place is really huge and just awesome!

It's not just about vampires. It's actually pretty huge for a DLC, it has a lot of new gear, new magic, new puzzles, weapons, dragons, dialogs/voice actors, unique items, architecture, environments, side-quests, etc. It's kinda hard to describe more without spoilers, but there is a third faction involved (Not playable though). I had a really epic run with it this weekend anyway, and soon I will do it again but from the other factions point of view and story outcome. That's at least ~20x2 hours of joy for me, combined with tons of new DG-based mods, which is well worth the money if you ask me!

It's not that hard to recreate manually though. Note the amount of steps on each slider you have made on your character ingame from left to right, and then recreate it on an NPC in CK. Takes a little longer to fix than using some program (If there are any that can copy faces yet), but "luckily" there aren't that many sliders in Skyrim compared to previous titles for shaping your face, so it doesnt take more than ~15 minutes to do.

When I get bored of Skyrim, I make mods. When I get bored of making mods, I play Skyrim with them. But I did take a few months break this spring to focus on some projects in other games. But gah, right now I just hope autumn will arrive in an instant, so I dont have to stand this superhot climate in here while gaming :P I want to play more, but it's disgusting. Still have lots of quests to do eventhough I've played past 300 hours.

Ahh nice David. Unpacking BSA's always seem to fix the strangest of problems :P Just saying. Most complaints I hear are about the vampires campaign. That's where most of the heavy scripts are, race changing, and changes to skills/perks and all that sensitive stuff. While the Dawnguards only main addition is a new type of weapon, which has created a few conflicts with various gameplay-mods. But the rest of Dawnguard faction related stuff are very simple additions. So it's quite logical when you think about it technically.

I think it's because Dawnguard is messing more with the original game/world than usual for a DLC. Adding quite a few new locations and random attacks in Skyrim and in cities, re-using original caves, altering guards dialogs, adding new quests to original NPC's, adding to skills and perks, new races, etc. This is kind of a golden recipe for massive conflict issues in a community that have been building thousands of mods upon the original Skyrim already. With Shivering Isles for Oblivion all they did to the original world was to add a tiny island with a teleport in the middle of a lake, while the rest of the expansion took place in a completely different world with practically zero conflicts. You also started it all by an instant diary entry upon launching the game with the DLC activated, instead of adding rumors to existing NPC's. I think the implementation was a very bold move by Bethesda, especially considering how much Skyrim changes during the civil war with new Jarls, guards and damaged cities. I'm sure a lot can go wrong with Dawnguard depending on what you have done, what you haven't done, and what you're in the middle of doing, in the original game. Skyrim is definitely a lot more sensitive to changes compared to Oblivion.

Bumped into one last bug today when finally finishing the Dawnguards questline. The crazy Arkay-mage seems to have a bugged weapon, as he hovers around doing the draw-weapon animation over and over during the final offensive. It made my head hurt so I fos-ro-dah'ed him out in the water :P Other than that, I managed fine with my above mentioned minor glitches. Seems to me like the vampire faction is more bugged than the dawnguards though. But most of all the problems that are reported are because of conflicts with various mods and game-changes they have installed (Even if deactivated in some cases). So I think it looks a lot worse than it really is.

This place was quite awesome indeed. Took as much time as possible to explore the place before hitting the actual quest. I'm using basic needs though, so I only had limited amounts of food and water with me, and the place kinda lacked beds for sleep :P Oh well, I found most of the things you mentioned here, as well as the trader with his wagon who would trade 25 soul-plant-things for an item of your choice. A bit disappointed in the amount of unique items there, but at least you got to keep the horse skull as a memory for your home :D

No new problems after updating SKSE and Script Dragon. Got a whole bunch of mods.

I'm still not done with it, but haven't seen anything gamebreaking at all. A few minor things; -Invisible shoes on a priest -Mesh hole in arms when using crossbow and dawnguard heavy armor (Might be because I run fov 90 though) -The "follow me" option disappeared on a DG-related companion after asking her to stay put for a moment. -Two DG sidequest sent me to clear the same dungeon, but for different purposes (Making the second run pretty eventless :P ) -Killcam when using crossbow can be awkward and glitchy sometimes. That's what I've experienced so far at least, and I'm about 15 hours in (Dawnguard side). I've had to reload a save to fix some of them. I'm not experiencing any CTD's at all, and I'm running tons of mods (Only gfx-mods, some new gear mods, body mods, and Hyporthermia with Basic Needs.